These interactions are usually carried out using a computer pointer, known by the English acronym CCD, standing for “Cursor Control Device,” and which is mainly implemented by a mouse, and also certain implementations better known as touchpad, trackball and thumbsticks.
It is known that the function of these pointers is to position a cursor on graphic objects on a display screen in order to select them, activate them or modify them.
A major problem with these pointing means is that they introduce a latency in the effective use of the interactive graphic objects, since they require the cursor to be positioned on top of the object.
In the context of the use of a touch screen, if the cursor is considered solely as a simple means of interacting on the objects, the presence of this cursor becomes a priori unnecessary.
Nevertheless, whatever the means used to interact on these graphic elements, there arises the problem of cancelling the modification made at a given instant on these graphic objects.
With applications increasingly involving interactive elements, the validation of the integrity of the validated, modified or activated data requires great attention on the part of an operator or a pilot. Moreover, the proliferation of these elements promotes input or interpretation errors. The operator or the pilot must then be able to correct or check data as simply as possible.
Once a new value of a parameter is validated and it is displayed in an interactive graphic object, it is best for the operator or the pilot to be able to “see” or “retrieve” the preceding value in a simple manner.
At the present time, there is no interactive avionics system that makes it possible to simply cancel a modification made to an interactive graphic object.
In the context of the AIRBUS systems, in particular on the A380 which comprises display system having interactive graphic objects, it is not possible to directly cancel, on the interactive graphic objects, a modification made by the operator.
In the context of the Honeywell/Dassault EASY systems, nor is it possible to directly cancel, on the interactive graphic objects, a modification made by the operator.
In the current computer systems, the cancellation of an action is done at the application level, and not at the level of each interactive object. This architecture then necessitates cancelling all the queue of the modifications before arriving at the modification of the action undertaken on one graphic object in particular.
The invention makes it possible to overcome the abovementioned drawbacks.
The invention comprises the implementation of an intuitive interaction on each interactive graphic object displayed in an application. The graphic object then includes the display of at least one parameter. The invention makes it possible to select the interactive graphic object and displace it outside of its initial position. The operator then sees a replica of the graphic object appear below, but with the preceding parameter value. A link is then created between the displaced graphic object and the replica of the graphic object so as to return to an initial position.
If the operator displaces the interactive object far enough away from its initial position, the link between the two interactive objects is broken and the displaced graphic object disappears, leaving the replica of the graphic object including the preceding parameter value.
If the operator displaces the graphic object within a determined area sufficiently close to the replica of the graphic object, and he releases the object, then the graphic object returns to its initial position. The cancellation of the value of the parameter is not taken into account.